1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates a heating control apparatus, and more particularly, relates to a heating control apparatus that uses a hardware circuit to directly control a heating temperature of a heating module and a control method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
With continuous advancements in printing technologies, three-dimensional printing has now become a very popular industry. Three-dimensional printing is also known as additive manufacturing which belongs to one of rapid prototyping technologies. In three-dimensional printing, a digital forming graphic file of a three-dimensional (3D) model built based on a computer aided design (CAD) software is converted into a plurality of thin (quasi-two-dimensional) cross-sectional layers (e.g., X-Y plane layers) stacked over one another in succession, and a 3D real object may be built by using a building material (e.g., metals or plastics in powdered form) in ways of layer-by-layer printing (e.g., along Z-axis direction) to cure the building material layer by layer.
Said building material has a specific melting point based on its material characteristic, and thus it is required to precisely control a temperature of a nozzle during three-dimensional printing, or else the building material may be charred or unable to exhibit in a complete molten state. In the existing technologies, a processor of a three-dimensional printing apparatus is usually used to sense the current temperature of the nozzle by a temperature sensor on the nozzle, and then a control signal is generated according to the current temperature of the nozzle and a preset temperature of the nozzle which is currently required, so as to dynamically control a heating apparatus of the nozzle as whether to perform heating or not. However, it requires longer operating time for the processor to determine the temperature of the nozzle before generating the control signal, such that a temperature variation of the nozzle may still not as expected. Accordingly, manufacturers are still searching for a heating control technique that is capable of instantly controlling the heating apparatus in order to provide a stable temperature for the nozzle.